Frame for display sheets or curtains.



L. G. DAVIDSON. FRAME FOR DISPLAY SHEETS. 0R CURTAINS.

APPLICATION FILED OOT. 19, 1908.

Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LYIVIAN C. DAVIDSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO BIG- 4 MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

FRAME FOR DISPLAY SHEETS OR CURTAINS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LYMAN C. DAVIDSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Frames for Display Sheets or Curtains, of which the following is a specification.

There a merchant desires to successively display advertisements in his window or in front of his store it is necessary to either provide a board on which said advertisements are pasted or print them on heavy card board which will stand alone or provide some sort of a frame which will support sheets of thin and therefore inexpensive paper in taut smooth position under different degrees of moisture in the air and under the jarring due to handling by clerks and others in their work in connection with and about said advertisements. Again many machines have heretofore been invented and used for successively displaying before an opening different advertisements or pictures. In such a machine great difliculty has been experienced in obtaining a suitable mounting for the sheets or curtains containing the advertising matter so that they may be changed at will; so that they will stand j arring due to either stopping or starting of the machine or the frame being set suddenly on the floor or the like. Difliculty has also been experienced in providing means for taking up different degrees of slack in the curtain itself due to different degrees of moisture in the atmosphere. Difficulty has also been experienced in always making the sheets or curtains han straight under all stages and conditions 0 work.

The object of the invention is to provide an easily constructable and usable frame adapted to be used with advantage either by the merchant or in the class of machines above mentioned.

The invention consists of a frame of rigid members for supporting the sheet, flexibly connected at its corners so as to allow for irregular hanging or supporting of the frame; also of novel means for mounting the display sheets or curtains within this frame so that they always hang smoothly under all conditions and are yieldably mounted so that they are not broken by jars which occur to the frame.

More in detail the invention consists of a loose jointed frame, a curtain applied to the top thereof the curtain carrying a weight which is guided slidably in the sides of the frame so that its tension may automatically vary as necessary.

Still more in detail the invention consists of specific features which will be hereafter more fully described and claimed as the specification proceeds.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a front view of mechanism illustrating the preferred form of the device of this invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 22 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical.

side detail view, partially in section, through the frame at the upper left hand corner of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a detail view taken on the line 4.-4 of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a side detail sectional view taken on the line 55 of Fig. 4.

In constructing the device of this invention a rectangular frame comprising the upper member 10, two side members 11 and a bottom member 12 is provided within which the display sheet 15 is to be mounted. In the particular case here shown this display sheet is secured to the upper member 10 by being loosely folded over it and secured by any suitable means to the main portions of the sheet as illustrated at 16 in Fig. 2. On the bottom edge of this display curtain l5 and secured by any suitable means is a weight bar 18 having its ends slidable between guide plates 19 and 20 attached to the inner edge of each member 11 near its bottom as shown. The spaces between these plates 19 and 20 act as slots and will be so referred to in the claims. The curtain is of such a length that its lower edge does not come in contact with the lower member 12 9 and the proportions of the weight 18 and the guides 19 and 20 are such that the weight may readily play up and down between said guide plates. This weight 18 is also of such a shape that its ends may move up and down between this guide plate without there being any danger of catching and sticking. The frame thus described is secured in the display machine by means of the projecting bars 22 or any other mechanism well known in the art. At the lower ends of the members 11 are projecting members or feet 23 upon which the frame rests when it is removed from the display machine and stood upon the floor.

All of the joints of the frame with the adjacent members of the frame are made loose by pins 25 or other suitable connections so that the frame will always hang with the sides 11 vertical and plumb from all sides even though the bar 10 at the top be slightly out of level. This construction serves the special purpose of always allowing the weight 18- to hold the curtain 15 straightand smooth.

The frame is specially made so as to be easy of construction and to allow the ready insertion of the successive sheets of advertising matter. In the first place the lower bar 12 is secured to the side members 11 by loosely fitting screw threads :26 so that when in place the members 11 are maintained constantly substantially parallel and in the second place the rod 10 is loosely secured to the upper ends of-the side members 11 by the pins 25 adapted to be removed so that the bar 10 will slide horizontally out of the members 11 and allow a new, previously folded over curtain to he slipped thereon.

In the operation of this device one or more of these frames are provided with each display machine. The operator takes his advertising sheet or curtain which may be of paper, cloth or any other material and secures it either in the manner shown or in any other manner to the upper member 10 of the frame and to the weight 18. In this position this display sheet 15 is suspended from a fixed support at the top and is freely movable up and down between the guides 19 and 20 being under normal conditions held perfectly straight by the weight 18. henever however an obstruction presses against the front or rear surface of this curtain 15 it may yield sufficiently so as to prevent the tearing or injury to the curtain the weight 18 allowing this by moving in the guides 19 and 20. Whenever the frame of the curtain or curtain in it is jarred suddenly, either by the machine in which it is mounted or by stopping or starting suddenly, or by the operator removing it from the machine and setting it suddenly upon the floor upon its supports 23, the sliding contact of the weight 18 with the guides of the side frame 11 allows the jar to be taken up in the display sheet 15 without tearing or other injury thereto. When the operator desiresto place another advertising sheet in a particular frame all he has to do is to open one of the upper corners of the frame, as heretofore described, slip the sheet or curtain 15 from 05 the upper member 10 and remove the weight 18 from the lower part of the curtain 15 and then reinsert a new sheet in the same "manner that he did ,the first one. Thus the same sheets can be removed without injury and used again at later dates if desired.

By the foregoing construction a display frame is obtained in which the sheets of advertising matter are always straight and are not readily liable to injury and destruction.

Having thus described theinvention,what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A device of the class described comprising a top member, two side members at tached thereto, a display sheet, means for securing the display sheet to the top member and means for connecting the display sheet to the side members in such a way that it is movable longitudinally thereof.

2. A device of the class described comprising a top member, two side members attached thereto, a display sheet, means for securing the display sheet to the top member, a weight upon the display sheet, and means for connecting the display sheet to the side members in such a way that it is movable longitudinally thereof.

3. A device of the class described comprising a top member, two grooved side members attached thereto, a display sheet, means for securing the display sheet to the top member, means 011 the side edges of the curtain slidable longitudinally of the side members in the grooves therein.

4. A device of the class described comprising a top member, two side members having longitudinal slots therein attached to the top member, a curtain attached to the top member, a weight on the curtain below the top member of the frame, having ends slidable in the slots in the side members for the purposes set forth.

5. A display frame comprising side and top members provided with means for securing it in a display machine, a curtain secured at its upper end to the upper portion of the frame, a weight secured to the lower portion of the curtain and means slidably securing the weight to the side members of the frame.

6. A display frame comprising top, bottom and two side members loosely connected together, a curtain detachably secured to the top member of the frame, a weight near the lower end of the curtain, and means for slidably guiding the weight in the side members of the frame for the purposes specified.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

LYMAN C. DAVIDSON. Witnesses:

DWIGHT B. CHEEVER, C. J. Cnms'rorren 

